Area 11
Area 11 are a band consisting of Sparkles*, Alex Parvis, Jonathan Kogan and Leo Taylor, and formerly Luke Owens. Area 11 formed in late 2010, during what Sparkles* called a 'disastrous jam session '. Luke, Parv and Sparkles* then discovered their shared love of anime while watching episode 22 of the anime Code Geass: "Blood Stained Euphy". This episode inspired the lyrics of the song Euphemia, and in the anime, Japan is known as 'Area 11' which provides the name for the band itself. Along side their music Area 11 also post playthroughs of games and different comedy sketches on their Youtube channel. They played a series of Worms Revolution which features the band and guest Duncan. Parv has also done a playthrough of the Witcher 2. Sparkles* has also done a playthrough of the very first Tomb Raider game. Sparkles* and Sjin are doing a playthrough of Day of the Tentacle. Leo also started a playthrough of Prince of Persia Kogie works on a lot of different sketches for the Area 11 channel which include Double Leg Cross, Riddles and Cereal. In December 2012, Area 11 made a song called Minecraft Christmas to help raise funds for the Yogscast Honey Drive 2012 fundraiser. On January 31st 2013 Area 11 released their first album All The Lights In The Sky. This finished at 75th in the UK album charts and 10th in the UKs Rock album charts. In April 2013, Area 11 released their single Shi No Barado, featuring vocalist Beckii Cruel, taken from their debut album All The Lights In The Sky. This single charted at number 12 in the Indie charts and number 1 on the Indie breakers charts. Along side their release of Shi No Barado, Area 11 did a Minecraft series called Gigacraft which has many links to Digital Haunt. 250 hard copy's of the single were made, some were sent to magazines or blogs to be reviewed. The rest were sold at Area 11s gigs along with limited edition Shi No Barado t-shirts. After Area 11 finished their gigs they then sold the remaining CDs and t-shirts on their website which sold out in under two hours. When buying these CDs Elevens were given the chance to request for it to be signed by the band and possibly Adam Davis and/or Beckii Cruel.This can be seen in the picture to the right. The band released a new single entitled "Go!! Fighting Action Power" on the Sunday of May 12th, 2013. This single was made for the new cartoon 'Bravoman' and can be seen here . This can also be seen live here. Sparks told the people in Radio Sparkles* that the band was already working on new music and they had 2 bars of a new song already. He also explained that band hope to bring back songs that were cut from All The Lights In The Sky such as Human is Dead;Mismatch and Homunculus. On Friday the 19th of July, Area 11 streamed a live gig from here. Their set list included System;Start , Vectors , Go!! Fighting Action Power , Knightmare/Frame , a cover of Haruka Kanata , The Strays , Euphemia , Shi No Barado with Beckii and finishing with Heaven-Piercing Giga Drill . On September 12th 2013, Sparkles announced that Area 11 were going to release All the Lights in the Sky as a physical album, with around about 1000 copies being made. Sparkles invited fans to be a part of the album by recording parts for Heaven Piercing Giga-Drill and Bōsōzoku Symphonic - All the Lights in the Sky. By the deadline the fans recordings had to be in, Area 11 had received 663 submissions that Sparkles then had to put together for the track. The announcement can be viewed here. Music Style Area 11 inhabit a particular niche in the modern music scene, with an exciting twist on bland generic rock. The band coined the term 'Gaijin Rock' to describe their music, with 'Gaijin' being Japanese for 'outsider', or someone who is not native to Japan. This is owed to the fact that Area 11's music is a blend between fast-paced rock, a slither of pop and heavy Japanese influences. Indeed, many of their songs display this clearly, such as with the use of Koto samples in the intro to The Legendary Sannin. Many of the band's songs are influenced by anime, and the lyrics are based on either specific episodes in the animes or general themes in them. The songs are inspired by: Code Geass (Euphemia, Knightmare/Frame), Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (Heaven-Piercing Giga Drill), Elfen Lied (Vectors), Fooly Cooly (Tokyo House Party), Death Note (Shi No Barado), Cowboy Bebop (The Strays), Naruto (The Legendary Sannin), Steins;Gate (Homunculus), Bravoman (Go!! Fighting Action Power) and the manga series Bakuman (Dream & Reality). Discography - Albums Blackline EP On the 3rd September 2011, Area 11 released the EP Blackline under Sparkles*'s own record label, Breaking the Boredom. The track listing was as follows: #Euphemia #The Legendary Sannin #Heaven-Piercing Giga Drill BLACKLINE 「COMPLETE」 A re-release of the EP, under the Yogscast Studios record label, was available for a short time on Area 11's Bandcamp, containing alternative artwork, demos and remixes, from the 11th January 2013: Kogie.jpg Theband.jpg tumblr_mnlx993qUx1rxrvvbo3_500.jpg|Area 11 from the crowd tumblr_mnlx993qUx1rxrvvbo1_500.jpg|Shi No Barado #Euphemia #The Legendary Sannin #Heaven-Piercing Giga Drill #Euphemia【Demo】 #The Legendary Sannin 【Demo】 #Heaven-Piercing Giga Drill 【Demo】 #Euphemia 【Off Vocal】 #The Legendary Sannin 【Off Vocal】 #Heaven-Piercing Giga Drill 【Off Vocal】 #Euphemia 【Sparkles* Trance Remix】 #Heaven-Piercing Giga Drill 【Echo Inada Remix】 All The Lights In The Sky Area 11's first LP was released under Yogscast Studios on the 31st January 2013. It debuted at 75 on the UK charts and at 10 on the UK Rock and Indie charts. The track listing was almost entirely new, and contained many brand-new songs: #System;Start #Vectors #Euphemia #Knightmare/Frame #Tokyo House Party #Shi No Barado (feat. Beckii Cruel) #Cassandra (Pt II) #The Strays #Dream & Reality #Heaven-Piercing Giga Drill #Bōsōzoku Symphonic Discography - Singles *Dota 2 Beta Key (2011) *Knightmare/Frame (2012) *Reply Boyz (2012) *Minecraft Christmas (2012) *Shi No Barado (feat. Beckii Cruel ) (2013) *Go!! Fighting Action Power (2013) Connection to Project S* Various members of the band have been granted access to the original Project S* Google Document before the Digital Haunt Wiki went live. Since Sparkles*'s own project has been in action since over four years before Area 11's formation, the rest of the band members did not contribute to the inital groundwork of the 'concept album', however it appears the band have all been briefed on Sparkles*'s work due to their evasiveness of question's regarding various topics, such as Cassandra, Pt. II, one of the only things released by the band not related to anime or gaming. Nowadays Area 11 contribute to Gigacraft, a Minecraft series on YouTube which is said by Sparkles* to be related to Cassandra. Most of Area 11's songs are assmued to be linked to Sparks' concept idea. Gigs *March 1st 2013 - The Pipeline, London *May 8th 2013 - The KOKO, London *May 15th 2013 - The Pipeline, London *August 23rd 2013 - Minecraft Expo, Telford * September 21st 2013 - Matsuri Festival Brighton Japan Trivia *Euphemia became the outro theme to the Yogscast YouTube channel 'BlueXephos' after a copy of Blackline EP came into Lewis Brindley's hands. *Many other sections of their songs appear on different Yogscast videos. *The banner image on the Area 11 Myspace page is a picture of mountains. Possibly some connection to the ATLITS art or to the Prologue III art. Last login was 29/05/2013. *The Band's Youtube channel features videos of the band members playing games, and various comedy sketches written by and staring the band. *Luke Owens and Tim Yearsley are past members of Area 11. External Links *Area 11's Wikipedia page *Area 11 on Soundcloud *Area 11 on Yogscast Wiki *Area 11 on Twitter *Area 11's Bandcamp (Back up in America!) *Area 11 website (redirects to YouTube) Category:Music Category:Area 11 Category:Bands